Opposition is building to President Clinton’s national testing
proposal from a coalition that includes conservative Republicans and
the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).
Critics say schools may use such tests to continue tracking
low-achieving, low-income students, thereby making them less likely to
graduate from high school and enroll in college.
“Widespread misuse of educational testing has disproportionately
penalized poor and minority children,” said Rep. Maxine Waters
(D-Calif.), chairwoman of the CBC. “[The president’s proposal] provides
no enforceable safeguards against the misuse of test results that can
harm our children.”
The unusual coalition of GOP leaders plus African American and
Hispanic Democrats gave the president’s plan a resounding vote of no
confidence in late September. The full House of Representatives voted
295 to 125 to prohibit the Clinton administration from spending federal
funds to develop national tests.
“When there is no effort to improve school facilities or to provide
adequate libraries, laboratories, computers and other learning
necessities, the burden of improving education is dumped solely on the
backs of the pupils,” said Rep. Major R. Owens (D-N.Y.), another CBC
member.
“We need opportunities to learn before we mandate national tests,” he added.
The president’s plan calls for voluntary tests beginning in 1999,
with a goal that all students perform at or above the basic level on
the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Only 60 percent of
students performed at that level in 1994.
